


things you can never know

by waveridden



Category: Friends at the Table (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Detectives, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Politics, Other, Season: Twilight Mirage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-16
Updated: 2019-12-16
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:07:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21815653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/waveridden/pseuds/waveridden
Summary: “First of all, I’m not a licensed private eye,” Echo says, because they’re not. That’s just… kind of what they ended up being. “And second of all, they’ve made it clear that they’re scared of any of this information being intercepted. It’s probably safer that I don’t know who they are.”
Relationships: Echo Reverie & ⸢Signet⸣, Grand Magnificent/Echo Reverie
Kudos: 21
Collections: 2019 AU December Challenge





	things you can never know

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is part of the AUcember series, a self-made challenge where I try to write a new AU one-shot every day. You can read all of the AUcember fics in the collection linked above. Title is from Monsters by Youngr.
> 
> With all my love to Tam, who helped me figure out the outfits.

“You know, I can literally teach you how to do this,” Gig says.

Echo ignores him. They know how to check their email and download attachments, and that’s enough for them. Gig can do everything else.

“No, seriously,” Gig continues. “It’s not that hard opening encrypted files.”

“Yeah, but it’s easier when you have someone else to do it for you.”

“Oh, great, I’m your computer errand boy.”

“Yes, you are.” Echo grins at him. Gig shoots them a glare, eyes narrowed and lips pursed, but it only lasts a second before he grins back. He’s a sap like that. “Is it open?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Gig clicks a couple things on Echo’s computer, and the files start opening. “You still don’t know who’s sending you these?”

“They’ve all been right so far.”

“Yeah, but isn’t that bad detective work?”

“First of all, I’m not a licensed private eye,” Echo says, because they’re  _ not. _ That’s just… kind of what they ended up being. “And second of all, they’ve made it clear that they’re scared of any of this information being intercepted. It’s probably safer that I don’t know who they are.”

GIg snorts. “What, so if you get caught they can’t torture it out of you?”

Echo doesn’t answer, because Gig hit the nail on the head and they don’t particularly want to let him know that. Instead, they lean in to look at their computer. “This seems like one I should pass on to Even.”

“Ugh, Even,” Gig mutters. He hasn’t spoken to Even since Even rejoined the police force; Echo sympathizes with that, but sometimes they just don’t have the firepower to take care of these things by themself. “I mean, if anyone deserves to have the cops called on them, it’s Advent, but-”

“But cops are still bad, yeah, yeah.” Echo starts clicking through the files. “Every single time I get a new file dump, I think that there couldn’t possibly be stuff about Advent that’s so bad that it surprises me. And every single time, I’m wrong.”

“Yeah, Kitcha Kanna’s kind of the worst,” Gig agrees. He hops up so he’s sitting on Echo’s desk, facing away from the computer, kicking his feet absently. “Is there anything we need to tell Iota about?”

“I need time to read through all of it, Gig.”

“You’ve had time.”

“A substantial amount of time,” Echo says patiently. “I hate them as much as you do, but I need to actually see what I have in order to use it.”

The Advent Group is the shittiest right-wing political party in the city. They’re basically fascists, and their leader Kitcha Kanna seems like he has a really good shot of becoming the mayor. But apparently someone has it out for him - and for Advent in general - because Echo has been getting emails like this for months now. Sometimes it’s fundraising information, sometimes it’s campaign strategies, sometimes it’s just personnel lists.

But all of it is confidential, the kind of thing that kills careers. Considering this is Advent, Echo wouldn’t be surprised if life and limb aren’t on the line here. And whoever this is has still been sending them, and by extension the local resistance, a  _ lot _ of sensitive information. But the emails only ever come to Echo. And Echo’s not… great with computers. Or even good with them.

Gig groans. “If I help read, will we be able to fuck up Advent faster?”

“Maybe,” Echo allows. They open a new document and lean in to read it. It’s about a fundraising gala, something that looks very political, lots of rubbing elbows. They’re ready to roll their eyes and move past it when something on the guest list catches their eye.

“Gig,” they say slowly. Gig hums in response, and they look up at him. “If, hypothetically, one of us had a way into a major political event tonight just to scope things out, we should do that even if we don’t have time to run it by Iota. Right?”

“Probably,” Gig says. “What’s the event?”

“It looks just like a place for bougie city people to meet all the candidates and make donations and stuff. But everyone will be there, and that means one of us should be.”

“If we can get someone in,” Gig agrees. “They don’t exactly invite us.”

“We’re barely a political movement, let alone a political party.”

“You think your source will be there?”

“I think Kitcha Kanna will be there.”

“Man, fuck that guy. I say you should go.” He twists around to look at the computer screen. “Who’s our way in?”

#

“Thank you again for agreeing to this,” Echo says. They’re more than a little self conscious to be so dressed up, so they end up fidgeting with the heavy necklace they’re wearing. “And for the, uh, last-minute wardrobe consultation.”

“It’s no problem,” Signet says. She looks just as cool and put-together as she always did when she worked with Echo, but she’s never been nearly this dressed up before. Her hair is in an updo that she had assured Echo didn’t take nearly as long as it looks like it should’ve taken. Echo’s not sure what that means, but it looks to them like it must’ve taken an entire day. “It’s good to see you, Echo. Even if it is a political favor.”

“It’s a lightly political favor.”

“How do you make it less political?”

“I’m mostly just here to be your arm candy. Is that apolitical?”

That gets a smile out of Signet. She’s been managing the campaign for a different mayoral candidate, and she looks exhausted, but she’s just as graceful as Echo remembers. She’d seemed excited to answer their call, and had offered to take Echo out to get a nice outfit. Echo’s never been much of a shopper, but Signet knows what she wants. And it was nice spending time with her, however briefly, before having to come to this.

“It can be apolitical if we talk about things that aren’t work,” Signet allows. “And I do want to catch up.”

“I promise we can go for coffee some other day this week.”

“I’m holding you to that.”

Echo smiles as they look around the ballroom. There’s no actual dancing; it looks like this is an event designed purely for mingling. Nobody is dressed nearly as well as Signet; for that matter, nobody is dressed nearly as well as the pair of them. Signet’s dress is a lovely shade of green that somehow brings out her hair, and the skirt is long enough to trail behind her. Echo’s blouse is made out of the same material, the only color visible under their white suit jacket. The two of them cut quite a figure, and it’s thrilling to be the one to make heads turn.

Or maybe people just recognize Echo from that one viral protest video. That’s also pretty likely.

Still, it’s easy enough to deal with this gala. Signet is in her element here, floating around the room and meeting people. Everyone who recognizes Echo makes polite conversation with them, and everyone who doesn’t seems to recognize Signet. And of course, Signet has plenty to say about everyone there, murmuring quiet gossip into Echo’s ear about nearly everyone they speak to.

They’ve been drifting around the gala for a couple of hours, eating canapes and drinking champagne, when Kitcha Kanna shows up. Echo sees him before Signet does, luckily in between conversations. They nod over her shoulder as subtly as they can.

Signet turns and looks over her shoulder. “Great,” she mutters. “Well, I guess we should- is that  _ Grand? _ ”

“What,” Echo says flatly. They have to stand on their toes to properly see where Signet’s looking, which isn’t their most dignified moment, but they have to see where she’s looking.

The last time Echo saw Grand Magnificent wasn’t a breakup, exactly. Neither of them said the word breakup. But it was pretty clear from that conversation that Grand was going to work for Advent, and Echo wasn’t going to take that lying down. And besides, is it really a breakup if neither of them ever said they were dating? If they’d just been… something too close to be platonic, something that Echo had never pushed to label because they thought they’d have all the time in the world to figure it out?

Grand is a few steps behind Kitcha Kanna. His hair is shorter than he used to keep it, but not by much. His tuxedo is a truly awful shade of pink, and his shirt is an equally awful shade of blue. He looks surprisingly uncomfortable, considering that fancy parties and shit basically used to be his element. For a single second, Echo viciously hopes that he’s miserable here. It’s what he goddamn deserves.

But then Grand turns, just enough to see Echo. They can see the exact moment that he registers that they’re here, because his face seems to freeze perfectly.

Echo drops back on their heels, mind racing. What could Grand possibly be doing here? He’s not high enough in the food chain at Advent to warrant being here.

“Echo,” Signet says, sounding concerned. They glance back up at her. “Do you need to leave?”

“After all that time you spent trying to find a white tux in my size?” Echo says, trying for humor. It definitely falls flat, judging by the look on Signet’s face. They sigh. “I’ll live. But maybe instead of coffee we can go out for drinks.”

“I was going to suggest that anyways,” Signet admits. “Do you want to avoid him?”

Echo glances back in Grand’s direction. They can’t really see him anymore, which is probably for the best. “No, we don’t have to. But you have to be mean to him for my sake.”

“Echo,” Signet says grimly, “I was going to be mean to him no matter what.”

“You want to know something great?”

“What?”

“I almost sent Gig instead of coming myself.”

Signet laughs, a sudden and undignified noise that makes Echo grin. She lifts a hand to cover her mouth, but they can see that she’s smiling behind it. “I feel like this night would be going… differently, if he were here.”

“I can’t imagine,” Echo mutters, but they can absolutely imagine. Gig would’ve started shouting the second he saw Grand, and he’d still be going now. “Okay, let’s get this over-”

“Mx. Reverie,” Kitcha Kanna says, from directly fucking behind Echo. “So good to see you.”

Echo doesn’t jump, but it’s an incredibly close thing. They turn around as smoothly as possible, moving to stand by Signet’s side. Kitcha Kanna is standing there. And, unfortunately, so is Grand. He’s looking pretty firmly at Signet and not at Echo, and they’re half annoyed and half relieved by that.

“Hi,” Echo says, because they’re really not interested in making small talk here. That’s why they came with Signet: she can do that for them.

Sure enough, Signet smiles at both Kitcha Kanna and Grand. “This is a lovely event, isn’t it?”

“It’s great, yeah,” Grand says. He looks uncomfortable as hell, which makes Echo feel better about everything. “You, uh, look nice.”

“Thank you,” Signet says, and lifts one of her hands to rest between Echo’s shoulder blades. “It’s always nice to see old friends, isn’t it?”

“Peachy,” Echo says. Signet’s hand goes flat against their back for a second, pressing in, a comforting motion. “Super glad that I could tag along with Signet here.”

“Ah, yes, I wasn’t expecting to see you here.” Kitcha Kanna gives Echo a considering look. “I had been wondering how you heard about this event. I know that your… your  _ people _ wouldn’t have received an invitation.”

Echo smiles at him, barely bothering to constrain their irritation. “My people and I get along fine, thanks. I’m just lucky that I have friends in high places.”

Grand startles at that, a strange, out-of-place motion. Signet and Kitcha Kanna ignore it, and immediately go off into some conversation about campaign strategy that Echo tunes out. They can leave the political talk to them, and Signet will tell them if they miss anything important.

But Grand… Grand is still not quite looking at Echo.

“Hey,” Echo says abruptly, because there’s really nothing else for them to do.

Grand’s eyes slowly slide from the middle distance over towards Echo. “Uh. Hey?”

“You’re, uh.” Echo grimaces. “Doing okay?”

“Yeah,” Grand says slowly. “You… look good. Both of you.”

“Pretty much all Signet.”

Grand nods. “I’m glad you heard about this from your… friend.”

There’s something to the way he says that, a deliberate weight, that makes Echo pause. “Me too,” they say slowly. “Hey, uh, you’re good with computers, right?”

“Better than you, probably.”

“That’s a low bar,” Echo mutters. Grand’s lips twitch up into a smile, and they hate that it makes their heart speed up for a second. “I was just wondering if you had any advice for encryption. I keep having to ask Gig, and he’s being very Gig-ish about it.”

“Encryption,” Grand repeats. “I know a couple things about it.”

Echo takes a breath. “Anything about encrypting emails?”

Bingo. Grand’s face doesn’t change at all, which is impressive, but his fingers flutter nervously at his side. It’s a tell, plain as fucking day for anyone who knows to look for it. And Echo knows to look for it.

Grand knows exactly what they’re talking about. Because Grand has been their inside source for Advent for months on end.

A million questions are racing through Echo’s mind - why them? does Grand know that he’s given Echo a reputation as a detective? why doesn’t he just leave? what does he want out of this? - but before they can give voice to any of them, Signet’s hand shifts to grasp their shoulder. “This has been lovely,” she says, and Echo can tell that she means that this conversation is over. “But Echo and I have plenty of socializing to do, and I’m sure the both of you do as well.”

“Of course,” Kitcha Kanna says. God, Echo fucking hates this guy, everything he says just sounds slimy.

Echo looks back at Grand for a second. His lips are parted slightly, like he’s about to say something, but he closes his mouth and gives Echo a tight smile. They look away, heart pounding, and let Signet pull them away.

She waits until they’re a good distance a way to lean in and murmur, “You okay?”

Echo swallows. “Can drinks some night this week be drinks tonight?”

“I’d be happy to, provided that we also get coffee later this week. Did he say something to you?”

“No,” Echo says. Grand is working against Advent. Grand is trying to  _ help them. _ “Not, uh, not as such.”

“Well,” Signet says. “If nothing else, I was trying to make him jealous. If we can’t take the high road, we might as well take the low road.”

They laugh faintly. Signet’s hand is warm against their shoulder. “Thank you.”

“I’m happy to.” She gives them a meaningful look. “So call me more often.”

“I will,” Echo promises. Even with all of the politics, with half their mind preoccupied, it’s a surprisingly easy promise to make.

**Author's Note:**

> If you also like weird political espionage, tell me about it on Tumblr/Twitter @waveridden!


End file.
